Joy Williams was born Eileen Williams, daughter of Doretta (Dora) and grand-daughter of Eileen and Harry Williams of Erambie Mission, West Cowra at the Crown Street Women's Hospital, Sydney. As a young child Joy was removed from her Aboriginal family and put in Bomaderry Home. At the age of six she was sent to Lutanda Children's Home run by the Plymouth Brethren, first at Wentworth Falls and later to Pennant Hills, Sydney. Williams was sent to Lutanda, where she was the only Indigenous resident, rather than Cootamundra Aboriginal Girls' Home because of her fair skin. Williams went to Hornsby Girls' High and then, at the insistence of the Brethren, was sent to the Nurses' Home at Parramatta District hospital at sixteen to become a Nurses' Aide. She was later sent to the North Ryde Psychiatric ward and while on weekend leave she became pregnant with her first child, a daughter. Being heavily sedated Williams was forced to sign adoption papers.
In the 1970s Williams received her birth certificate and eventually met her mother. She enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts, English/History at Wollongong University and was the Regional Representative of the Aboriginal Consultative Group. Williams was actively involved with the Aboriginal Community Centre and the Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody. Her interest was in Black Literature and she hoped that one day this would be taught at all levels throughout the education system. Williams was the first Aboriginal compensation test case against the New South Wales Government for negligence by the Aboriginal Welfare Board who were responsible for her removal from her mother and the abuse she endured from the Homes to which she was sent. Williams lost her case to the Supreme Court in August of 1999. In 2000 she took her appeal to the Court of Appeal (New South Wales) to be heard by Chief Justice Spigelman, Justice Shellar and Justice Heydon. She lost that case also. On 22 June 2001, the High Court rejected an application for leave to appeal.
